In order to become relevant in a given culture, the imported phenomena (e.g. medicinal plants) have to be integrated into own, while also remaining ‘foreign’ in some respect (which, in the case of medicinal plants, gives additional potency to their healing power). The p...

The article takes a critical look at archaeoastronomy as a marginalised area of research and dwells upon the so-called “bad examples” with an aim to highlight the methodological reasons why archaeoastronomy is not considered a true science. The elicited examples are ind...

Hofstadter's classic essay "The Paranoid Style in American Politics" opened a floodgate of analyses of fear and conspiracy theories in American culture. The present paper adds to those studies by providing a cultural interpretation of commercials for alternative cures. ...

QC 20200415

The tradition of Estonians’ cultural festivals is a rich topic and may be considered profoundly distinctive for Estonian people. It is a unique way of maintaining and advancing the traditions of national heritage through a variety of activities. Since after World War II...

The aim of the paper is to show the Polish story of the COVID-19 pandemic as seen through a humorous looking glass. Different stages of coronavirus presence in the media and social discourse have been accompanied by the appearance and development of jokes and memes, whi...

The article gives an overview of the folk culture mechanisms that helped to cope with the pandemic situation in Belorussia during the first wave of COVID-19 (until midsummer 2020). The article is based on the qualitative analysis of interview texts related to the pandem...

Since the 1990s there has been a notable increase in family history research and genealogy in many countries. The development and popularity of information and social networking technology has substantially contributed to this boom in family history. Numerous associatio...

The article explores the use of folk healing methods in the mixed Estonian and Finnish lore group (called virulased), who have settled in the village of Ryzhkovo. The village was established around 1803 as an ethnically mixed Lutheran settlement in West Siberia. The mat...

One of the characteristics of the 15th–16th-century pre-Reformation sacral art in southern central Europe, as well as in the Netherlands and Italy, is the multitude of natural plant depictions. Depending on the artists and subjects of paintings, plant depictions could, ...